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A comment on Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs?.

Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by rossdavidh on Friday September 07, 2018 @12:45PM (#17935707)
Well obviously automation is to blame, that's why the economy shifted to buying real goods made in China and Mexico, two nations that at the dawn of the 21st century were at the forefront of robotics. Also places like Bangladesh and Vietnam. It also explains why imports from places like Japan and South Korea, clearly laggards in robotics, declined over the last couple decades.

Oh, wait...

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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by quxbar on Friday September 07, 2018 @12:55PM (#17935795)
The country where a technology was invented matters very little to the people making money from it.

However, I think 'automation' is really just a bad proxy, technology is -augmenting- workers and re-architecting supply chains. Consider how transformative the standardized shipping container is for an import/export business - regardless of what countries they operate in.

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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by John_KZ on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:15PM (#17935955)
Although China is on the other side of the equation, it provides plenty of clear examples showing automation not eliminating jobs. It changes the available jobs, and generally improves them (ie digger operator instead of hand-shovel "operator") but jobs are still available.
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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by Brockenstein on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:26PM (#17936055)
Well I wouldn't call an excavator automation exactly. But at the same time, you think ten guys digging a ditch at least some of them aren't made redundant when you get an excavator? You don't need ten excavators, and maybe you don't need 1 excavator driver and 9 ditch diggers...

I mean I think you're engaging in selective reasoning.

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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by sigstoat on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:05PM (#17936375)
> Well I wouldn't call an excavator automation exactly.

go dig a trench by hand and get back to us.

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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by Brockenstein on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:20PM (#17936008)
Well paying someone a $1 a day is a lot cheaper than expensive robot and the infrastructure to maintain that robot.

If cheap labor is available you use that. If you can't expert the work to a developing nation automation might be the next best option. There's no single boogey man to blame.

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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by LarryDarrell on Friday September 07, 2018 @12:48PM (#17935737)
But we have cheap VCRs now.
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Re:Is Automation Really to Blame for Lost Manufacturing Jobs? by s_kilk on Friday September 07, 2018 @01:10PM (#17935909)
Turns out the Labour Theory of Value was correct.
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